Korea

Seoul, South Korea -- A SILLY JOKE about Korea's impassioned new economic vision of itself and of the world has a dutiful mother cat trying hard to catch a mouse to feed her hungry babies. Finally, she corners the poor creature in his hole and tries to trick him out by barking like a dog.At first, the clever mouse thinks to him self, "No, that is only the cat barking . . ." But eventually he is taken in and comes out, only to be snatched swiftly away by the mother cat. As her children applaud, the mother tells them proudly, "And that . . . is globalization!"

I see nothing wrong with all voters having a photo ID ( "Double voting? Not necessarily," Sept. 2). I show my driver's license when I vote although not asked to. When my mother was 86, she stopped driving and told me to take her to Motor Vehicle Administration to get a photo ID card. I am an 80-year-old veteran having arrived in Korea when I was 18. So far, I am also a registered Democrat who has not missed a vote since 1956. To me, this is all part of being a citizen. John DuBree - To respond to this letter, send an email to talkback@baltimoresun.com . Please include your name and contact information.

Navy Seaman Brian M. Marousek recently took part in a military exercise in the Republic of Korea while assigned aboard the command ship USS Blue Ridge.The training exercise involved defending the Republic of Korea. The USS Blue Ridge is the flagship for the commander of the Navy's 7th Fleet, who is in charge of all U.S. naval operations in the Pacific Ocean from the International Date Line to the Arabian Sea.Seaman Marousek is the son of Mr. and Mrs. E. F. Marousek of Sykesville. The 1989 graduate of Liberty High School joined the Navy in January 1991.

Maryland native Joseph Gantt joined the Army at 18, serving with distinction as a Sergeant First Class in the South Pacific during World War II, even though the military segregated him because of the color of his skin. Gantt had redeployed to the front lines of Korea in December 1950 as a field medic with the 2nd Infantry Division when his unit was overrun by enemy forces. Gantt was thrown into a prison camp and reportedly died there in March 1951. But his wife, Clara Gantt, refused to lose faith.

After spending his first year in Seoul, South Korea, James Taylor knows what it feels like to be in the minority."You walk through downtown Seoul and you've got people looking at you funny because you're American. They'll start telling you things like, 'Yankee go home,' " says Taylor, 17, originally of Yuma, Ariz."Now I know what some minorities go through (in the United States)," Taylor said.An outfielder, Taylor is one of three white Americans on the South Korean team in town for the Continental Amateur Baseball Association's 18-and-under World Series.

Imagine 99 identical Barbie dolls in green Army fatigues and boots arrayed in parade rank before a crimson backdrop. It's an image of militaristic, monolithic power that pretty much sums up artist Mina Cheon's decidedly dim view of totalitarian rule. Cheon (pronounced CHUN) is a Korean-American artist who teaches at the Maryland Institute College of Art. In previous exhibitions, she's explored the tensions between her native South Korea and its communist neighbor to the north in a variety of media, including video, interactive multimedia installation and complicated, three-dimensional string sculptures.

TOKYO -- The Japanese government raised new questions yesterday about its contrition for past militarism by declaring that its annexation of Korea in 1910 was legal and was not forced on the Korean people.The latest assertions by Japan's official government spokesman are likely to add to anger in Asia at Japan's reluctance to apologize for wartime brutality. This remains a sensitive issue in the region.The statement from Tokyo is as if the German government were to declare that its invasion of France during World War II had been legal and amicable, because agreements were signed between Germany and the puppet government in Vichy.

Memories. Of numbing cold. Of sweltering heat that made men feel like they were marching through a sauna. Of 18-year-olds who knew little about ideology pitted against 18-year-olds who knew even less. Of rice paddies that extended beyond the horizon. Of a war politicians insisted wasn't a war. Of a nation that seemed intent, more than anything, to forget it ever sent its sons and daughters to fight in Korea.Bill Robinette remembers Korea. He remembers the frostbite that gripped his toes, the shrapnel that cost him an eye and punctured his brain, the comrades killed in action who never lived to enjoy the freedom they were sent overseas to protect.

MUCH AS AMERICANS rejoice at hosting this summer's Olympics in Atlanta, hundreds of millions of sports fans throughout the world believed the U.S. reached the big-time in 1994 by hosting the soccer World Cup. It was so huge it needed the stadium resources of the nation.What the rest of the world calls football and Americans soccer has staged these wars of the best national teams quadrennially since 1930, always in Europe or the Americas. Next World Cup, 1998, is in France. It's the bidding for the coveted 2002 World Cup, the first of the 21st century, the first in Asia, that made history.

"Korea," by Simon Winchester, 240 pages, Prentice Hall Press, New York, N.Y., $10.95.Books like Simon Winchester's "Korea" belong to a lineage that goes back to the beginning of time, or at least to that time when some blue-painted Anglo-Saxon cave dweller ambled off to the next moor then came back to tell his cavemates about it."Korea" is one of those British travel books in which a British writer describes the peculiarities of a people who are not British.These books are endlessly popular, especially here in the United States, which itself has been described in many, many British travel books over the last couple of centuries, often unfavorably.

In another episode of how the Orioles' offseason turns, Korean right-hander Suk-min Yoon posted a "selfie" Twitter photo Tuesday night of him wearing an Orioles hat and flashing the peace sign. The caption apparently reads “ta-da.” There was no confirmation in the United States or Korea on Tuesday that the 27-year-old Yoon, a former Most Valuable Player of the Korea Baseball Organization, has indeed signed a deal with the Orioles. One source said Tuesday night that the club is negotiating with Yoon, but no deal has been reached -- not even pending a physical.

The place was the U.S. House of Representatives. The time was the mid-1980s. I was a relative newcomer to Congress from California, and the Republican conference was hosting President Ronald Reagan. The president, beloved by the members, was coasting through a question-and-answer session, fielding the mostly "softball" questions with his legendary charm. Then Helen Delich Bentley, even more of a newcomer than I, stepped to the microphone. Her question was typical Bentley - blunt and reflective of the interests of the blue collar folks she represented.

To all those who sincerely believe they are being virtuous and standing up for the principles of smaller government, I ask you to examine two recent events that indicates that you are being used. The first example is the National Rifle Association claiming to represent the law-abiding gun owner. Balderdash! Any credence given to the NRA's claim was "shot in the head" by their response to a treaty recently agreed to by the U.S. government. Their response demonstrates that they only represent the gun manufacturers' desire to sell more guns.

Robert Lamont Tate, who founded two industrial manufacturing businesses and was a former president of the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, died of heart disease Oct. 5 at his Sarasota, Fla., home. The former Ruxton resident was 89. Born in Baltimore, he was the son of William J. Tate and the former Mary Lamont. His father's family, who were of Scots ancestry, lived in Belfast, Northern Ireland. His father was a marine engineer at Harland & Wolff, builders of the Titanic and numerous other vessels.

Recent satellite imagery suggests that North Korea has greatly expanded its uranium enrichment capabilities. The nation just promised to launch more long-range rockets "soon. " And, reportedly, labs in Pyongyang are hard at work developing nuclear-armed missiles capable of striking the U.S. mainland. With the North Korean threat apparently mounting, it's essential for the United States to continue investing in missile defense. Missile shield technologies first gained attention in 1983 when President Ronald Reagan proposed a bold endeavor called the Strategic Defense Initiative.

The Orioles have signed South Korean left-hander Jung-Hyun Yoon, the organization's first signing in South Korea since last year's failed signing of 17-year-old high-school pitcher Seong-Min Kim. The 21-year-old Yoon most recently pitched collegiately at Dongguk University in Seoul, South Korea. The Orioles like his smooth delivery and the fact that he owns a solid curveball with significant upside. Yoon will report to the Orioles spring training complex in Sarasota to begin working out and then be re-evaluated before being assigned within the minor league system.

William E. "Bud" Crosland Sr., a retired career Army officer who served in Vietnam and Korea, died Jan. 22 of heart failure at Mercy Medical Center. He was 80. He was born and raised in Bennettsville, S.C., where he graduated from Bennettsville High School in 1947. After graduating in 1952 from The Citadel in Charleston, S.C., he was commissioned an Army officer. He served in the late 1960s in Vietnam and again in 1972, when he helped to oversee the withdrawal of South Korean troops from Vietnam.

This year marks the observance of landmark anniversaries of several military milestones in U.S. history. The 150th anniversary of the third year of the Civil War, among the bloodiest in American military history, is commemorated throughout 2013. This year also is the bicentennial of the second year of the War of 1812; it was a year notable for the British Navy's Chesapeake campaign which resulted in the sacking of Havre de Grace. Notably, a century ago this year was the last full year of what passed for peace in the complicated lead up to the start of World War I. The coming year marks the centennial of the start of what was initially referred to as the Great War, but would later be called the War to End All Wars and then when another great war erupted a generation later, World War I. This year also marks the 60th anniversary of the end of a war that looms large in American policy even now, the Korean War. In an effort to ensure that the Korean War doesn't get lost in the mix, a group of veterans from Harford County who fought on the peninsula nation that borders China's northern Manchuria territories, but has been claimed at times by Japan, donated $1,000 to the county's public library system to support commemorations of the 60th anniversary.

Army personnel at Aberdeen Proving Ground are developing methods to detect biological weapons in response to recent threats from North Korea, including a 15-foot-high device that soldiers have dubbed "the Kraken. " North Korea has issued a series of threats in recent weeks, and U.S. officials are monitoring the Korean peninsula, from which Kim Jong-un's government could launch ballistic missiles. While the danger of missiles is more pressing, Army officials said developing better capabilities to detect biological warfare threats has also been a priority for the past six years.